Thursday January 30

Kiuryaq

Reneltta Arluk (she/her) 
Yellowknife / Toronto

Kiuryaq is an immersive circumpolar experience exploring the power and mystery of the Northern Lights. It is an interdisciplinary piece created by musical, visual and theatre artists from Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada, Greenland, and Sápmi. We have been following the threads of stories which weave through the Aurora Borealis, or “Kiuryaq” in director Reneltta Arluk’s Inuvialuktun language. These stories, frightening, spiritual, epic and playful, live in our memories and experiences, and in our traditions which converge and talk to each other in ways we could not have imagined. Kiuryaq is a transformative performance which knits the circumpolar region together and offers its wisdom to the planet.

Akpik Theatre is a northern-focussed, professionally run, Indigenous-led company founded in the Northwest Territories in 2008. We uphold Northern Indigenous stories, engage with Elders and Knowledge Keepers, and expand Indigenous languages and performance practices. 

Theaturtle creates essential, ecstatic theatre that transcends borders, touches the earth and ignites the soul. We take time developing our music and image-infused performances and tour them in Canada and internationally.

Links: akpiktheatre.com, theaturtle.com

Email: ad@akpiktheatre.com, alon@theaturtle.com

Orpheus

Alan Lake (he/him)
Québec city, Québec, Canada

Orpheus, Alan Lake’s new work, is a fusion of an ethereal odyssey into the depths of the soul and a profound reflection on contemporary challenges. A visceral journey through love, loss, life, and death, while contemplating humanity’s transcendent power to overcome division, conflict, and isolation. Blurring the lines between reality and dream, this piece reminds us that despite the chaos and turmoil of the modern world, our humanity remains the most powerful force for positive change. It invites us to confront our fears, desires, and vulnerabilities and guides us with a timeless lesson: to move forward with unwavering conviction, embracing the unknown to discover the true essence of our humanity and the limitless potential of our journey through life.

Alan Lake Factori[e] is a multidisciplinary dance company founded in 2007 in Quebec by choreographer Alan Lake. At the crossroads of dance, cinema, and visual arts, the company creates raw and symbolist worlds about humans and their environment. Alan Lake Factori[e] is known for ambitious projects like “Le cri des méduses” and “Parades”, garnering international acclaim and expanding contemporary dance’s boundaries.

Links: https://alanlakefactorie.org/en/, Facebook: @alanlakefactorie, Instagram: @alanlakefactorie

Email: louismartin.freelance@gmail.com, brent@belshers.ca

À l’Est de Nod

Andréane Leclerc
Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang / Montréal, Québec, Canada

À l’Est de Nod is a 4 hours long performative-installation within which spectators wander at their own pace through La forêt, L’errant·e and L’abîme. In La forêt, temps 1 d’À l’Est de Nod the choreographer will spend 50 hours facilitating the creation with your community to form a group of 9 to 27 local performers to perform the piece.

This creation proposes an experiential reflection on the physical and psychic limits, both intimate and political, that we share.

Andréane Leclerc is inspired by the contortion she has been practicing for more than twenty years to create a score where different nature-bodies move, more instinctive and cosmic than social and disciplinary. The question “how contortion informs non-contortionist bodies” marks the starting point of this singular artistic approach that meditates and questions the concept of limit as a structure.

Nadère Arts Vivants is a Montréal based performing art company whose practice is anchored in artistic and geographical nomadism. Nadère nurtures research-creation processes through artistic projects centered on cooperation.

Nadère fosters creative projects both in its home base of Québec and internationally, exploring links between land-based and bodily territories.

Under the artistic direction of Andréane Leclerc, Nadère favors transdisciplinary processes to create works for diverse audiences across multiple forms.

Links: www.nadereartsvivants.com, Facebook @NaderePerformingArt, Instagram: @nadereartsvivants

Email: aleclerc@nadereartsvivants.com

Italian Mime Suicide

Adam Paolozza 
Toronto, ON, Canada

Italian Mime Suicide is loosely based on the true story of an Italian mime who, in 2003, committed suicide claiming no one appreciated his art.

With an imagistic aesthetic reminiscent of the kitsch iconography of clowns, mimes and world weary circus acrobats, Italian Mime Suicide sensitively explores the levity within tragedy, creating a funny, poetic meditation on melancholy, the acceptance of failure and the usefulness of art in troubled times.

IMS debuted in 2021 in Montreal to a sold-out run at Théâtre aux Écuries, earning a “Top Ten Shows of 2021” by the Montreal Gazette, before completing a 5-time Dora award winning run in Toronto in April, 2022.

About Bad New Days: Since 2014, Bad New Days has established a unique presence in Canadian theatre, creating visually bold and physically innovative theatrical works that explore the complexity of the human condition through a playful blend of lightness and gravity. Our work is as much about “how” as “what” we see, and we aim to create theatrical experiences that encourage the audience to experience meaning in novel ways.

Links: www.badnewdays.com, Instagram: @badnewdays, Facebook: @badnewdaysperformance

Email: badnewdaysperformance@gmail.com

همه هستی من آیه تاریکیست | All my being is a dark verse

Alexis Fletcher (she/her) and Arash Khakpour (he/him)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

 همه هستی من آیه تاریکیست | All my being is a dark verse is a full length contemporary dance duet described as “exciting and ambitious…a kind of embodiment of freedom and love,” (Stir). Created and performed by Alexis Fletcher and Arash Khakpour, the heart and rigour of this piece lies in the concept of translation, with our inspiration being the extraordinary poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad. Forugh is one of the most beloved Persian poets, and a powerful female voice which speaks across cultures and generations. Similar to her writing, this piece, although being specific, is also timeless, transcends across cultures, and is full of humanity and love that goes beyond borders and ideologies. Immersed in Forugh’s words and our visceral responses to her poetry, we marry the artistic disciplines of literature, visual art, and dance by reaching across dance styles, languages, and cultures in the practice of duet. 

Alexis Fletcher and Arash Khakpour are both Vancouver-based dance artists, choreographers and directors. Arash is Co-Artistic Director of The Biting School with his brother Aryo, and Alexis is Founding Co-Artistic Director of Belle Spirale Dance Projects, with Sylvain Senez. While we have wildly different dance backgrounds, we share a love of physical rigour, improvisation, emotional vulnerability, and a collaboration like this allows for building bridges between different dance styles and aesthetics to wilfully diversify and connect on a creative level.   

Links: www.bellespirale.ca, Instagram: @bellespirale, Instagram: @alexisstarfletcher, Instagram: @thebitingschool, Instagram: @arash_khak

Email: artistic@bellespirale.ca

Behind the Smile

Sherry J Yoon (she/her) and Jay Dodge (he/him)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Behind the Smile is a collaboration between Boca del Lupo and Goblin Party, exploring the paradox of mascots—symbols of joy masking hidden struggles, particularly with unexpected aggression from children. Drawing on mascot tropes from parks and stadiums, it combines Goblin Party’s contemporary dance with Boca del Lupo’s visual storytelling. Led by Sherry J Yoon, a Korean Canadian and Boca del Lupo’s co-artistic director, the piece reflects on societal misunderstandings and challenges faced by those concealing their true selves. Yoon finds joy in merging humor with revelation, and is thrilled to bring this heartfelt work to both her Canadian and Korean communities.

Boca del Lupo is led by Artistic Directors Sherry J. Yoon and Jay Dodge. Yoon is a co-creator and director of the company’s original productions and Dodge’s writing, performances and designs are central in Boca del Lupo’s shows. The company has received numerous awards including the Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation; and the Alcan Performing Arts Award.Their productions have toured across Canada and internationally including Europe, Mexico and South America.

Links: https://bocadellupo.com/, Instagram: @bocadellupo

Email: jay@bocadellupo.com

lossy

Lisa Mariko Gelley (she/her), Josh Martin (he/him), Marcus Youssef (he/him)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Premiered in June 2024, lossy is Company 605’s new ensemble piece, exploring our complex relationship to both future and grief. lossy describes the bodies that were left behind, in a state of recovery. It is both real and science fiction, digital and embodied.

The work navigates a liminal space where the promise of future collides with ever-present absences, and where our incessant draw towards the limitless new is met with continuous loss. Set to a powerful and imaginative soundtrack by Matthew Tomkinson, lossy is a warped and wild ritual of transcendence, swerving between a carefree conjuring of a shiny new future “us”, and a collective grieving for all that is lost along the way.

Company 605 is a Vancouver-based arts organization known for its innovative dance projects. Emphasizing rigorous choreographic propositions, movement exploration, and collaborative processes, their diverse productions and award-winning dance films have been presented throughout Canada and internationally, featured at notable festivals and venues worldwide. 605 is an ongoing exchange between separate people, bodies and ideas, celebrating the unique possibilities created in their attempt to co-exist.

Links: Instagram: @company605, Facebook: @company605, https://vimeo.com/company605

Email: francesca@company605.ca

Nigamon/Tunai

Émilie Monnet (She/Elle/Kwe)
Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Quebec, Canada

The words Nigamon and Tunai mean “song” in the Anishinaabemowin and Inga languages. NIGAMON/TUNAI is a poetic manifesto by Émilie Monnet and Waira Nina.

At the crossroads of friendship and resistance for the protection of water and against extractivism, the two women invite us to a precious sharing nourished by their experiences, the cosmogonies and struggles that connect them. 

In NIGAMON/TUNAI, Émilie Monnet and Waira Nina experiment with their voices, their breath and their bodies to create a multi-sensory experience. Interweaving performance and audio documentary, this new immersive theatrical work reveals fascinating resonances between territories.

Links: https://onishka.org/, Facebook: @ProductionsOnishka, Instagram: @onishka_sca, Vimeo

Email: emilie@onishka.org

Mōnad

Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé (she/her)
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Mōnad (from the ancient Greek ‘monad’, meaning ‘unit’) refers to the idea of a self-sufficient, unicellular organism containing multiple universes. Major player on Québec’s hip-hop dance scene, Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé embodies this Mōnad.

Inspired by this primary matter and energized by her symbiotic relationship with dance and hip-hop culture, Spicey welcomes materials and sounds that form, and deform, adapt, and transform as they interact. How can we approach different incarnations of a single life? Mōnad is a vibrant consideration of the relationships in interrelated universes, questioning the notion of eternity.

Ebnflōh Dance Company was founded in 2015 by dancer and choreographer Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé from Montreal. Her mission is to create, produce, and present engaging, authentic, and original work. By putting forth a novel choreographic language that is deeply rooted in the spirit of Hip-Hop, the company presents its creations throughout Québec, Canada, and abroad.

Links: https://en.agenceresonances.com/ebnfloh, https://ebnfloh.com/en, Instagram: @Ebnfloh 

Email: danse@agenceresonances.com

MY HOUSE

Ralph Escamillan (he/him) 
Vancouver, BC, Canada

MY HOUSE—a new performance work by FakeKnot, thrusts Ballroom from the runway onto the stage. Featuring an all Ballroom cast and creative team, the bold innovativeness of this underground culture is brought forward through the viewpoint of Posh Gvasalia Basquiat (Ralph Escamillan).

While honouring foundations of the past, performers undergo a process of self-actualization — embodying the symbolic elements that represent familial bonds coalescing into the formation of a “House.” The technique of “Trompe L’Oeil” is introduced as a visual motif under than hands of Ralph and costume designer Mother Diseyie Juicy Couture Balenciaga, and the unique soundscape of a “Ball” is curated by a live local DJ, and commentator—the “VOICE” and master of ceremonies. The cast includes a team of Canadian Kiki Legends: Snoopy 007 Basquiat (Toronto) and Brian 007 (Montreal); and Father Jaws Siriano Balenciaga (Toronto).

FakeKnot is the umbrella entity for collaborative performance works that play with the complexities of identity and culture through costume, sound, technology, and movement. FakeKnot is grounded in street, commercial, and contemporary dance techniques that honours the queer, POC, Philippine diasporic identity of Artistic Director, Ralph Escamillan. Collaboration as a practice of knowledge co-creation is essential for FakeKnot in the ways it can bring differences together.

Links: fakeknot.com, Instagram: @fakeknot

Email: francesca@fakeknot.com

catching up to the future of our past

James Gnam (he/him), Natalie LeFebvre Gnam (she/elle)
MST Territories (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

catching up to the future of our past is a duet for Natalie LeFebvre Gnam and James Gnam that reflects on the minutiae of midlife by exploring the times and places where they have existed or will exist, as both potential and memory. Set within a retro-futurist astral bubble, transported onto a 22-foot revolving stage, the work considers the weight of time, the imprints that we are born with, the ephemerality of the present, and the ripples that are left behind when we are gone.

About Plastic Orchid Factory: Founded by award-winning dance artists James Gnam and Natalie LeFebvre Gnam in 2008 on unceded xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlili̓lw̓ətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, Plastic Orchid Factory produces and supports divergent artworks that are pluralistic in practice and in form. Using the body as a first line of inquiry, we blend disciplines and approaches to create new frameworks for making and experiencing live art. 

Links: https://plasticorchidfactory.ca/, https://plasticorchidfactory.ca/works/catching-up-to-the-future-of-our-past/, Facebook: @orchidfactory, Instagram: @orchidfactory

Email: natalie@plasticorchidfactory.ca 

And We Cheerfully Put the Gods to Death

James Long (he/him)
Bergen (Norway) / Vancouver

Four years after Footnote Number 12, James Long and Andrea Spreafico have returned with a new piece pulled from yet another non-theatrical text. The new show takes a short story of Jorge Louis Borges as a starting point for an oneiric journey that transports the audience to Fargo, North Dakota at a bar where the local community of Norwegian-Americans gather for karaoke and drinks. In this context, Anna, a Norwegian tourist, sparks expectations that will not be met. The show plays with prejudice, identity and delusion and invites few audience members on stage to have a drink at the Trolls Lounge and observe the actors as they shift from the first to third person to tell this story set in America’s Midwest.

Spreafico Eckly is a performing company based in Bergen (Norway) founded by Andrea Spreafico and Caroline Eckly and currently directed by Andrea Spreafico. The company’s activity wants to challenge the boundaries of genres, moving freely among dance, music, theatre and theory, always relying upon detailed dramaturgies and written creative processes.

Links: www.spreaficoeckly.no

 Email: andrea@spreaficoeckly.no, james_long@sfu.ca

What Brings You In

Leslie Ting (she/her) 
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

What Brings You In is a hybrid live in-person and online theatrical confessional concert featuring 5 experimental new music pieces and narration with creative audio description, exploring when and where our truest selves emerge through in-person listening or online interactive play. 

The What Brings You In bespoke web-app, developed with NYC-based EMMA Technology Cooperative, offers online audiences a private introspective experience and the ability to create their own soundscape through cursor interactivity. 

The in-person performance features a communal listening experience with theatrical 7.1 surround sound and the opportunity to explore the custom-built sandtable.

Featuring Leslie Ting, violin and Germaine Liu, percussion.

Leslie Ting Productions creates groundbreaking interdisciplinary performances based in artistic research exploring new ways of engaging audiences in classical & new music. Leslie combines her background as a classical musician with theatre, installation art, and experience as a former practicing optometrist. 

Dedicated to pushing boundaries across artistic disciplines and genres, Leslie Ting Productions brings together communities and audiences in new ways of seeing themselves and the world around them.

Links: www.leslieting.com, Instagram: @leslieating

Email: leslie@leslieting.com, laura.a.philipps@gmail.com

Tracing Bones and Chapter 21

Starr Muranko (she/her) 
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Tracing Bones is a duet about memory and presence.  It reflects upon the question – what memories do we hold onto, what do we tuck away, what gets forgotten or transformed over time? Choreographed by Starr Muranko & Marisa Gold | in collaboration with performers Marisa Gold and Ysadora Dias.

Chapter 21 – the Film was created as a way to honour and track the journey of choreographer Starr Muranko in the creation of her full length dance/theatre piece titled Chapter 21. Film Directed by Sophia Mai Wolfe. (30 minutes)

Chapter 21 explores what happens when a vibrant, active artist comes face to face with a crippling collision of events. Chapter 21 is a reflection on the days that have come to pass, and the art of becoming. A new baby boy; Chromosome 21; the big “C” diagnosis, 21 days between treatments, and 21 days to re-pattern beliefs; Courage; Faith; Resilience.

Raven Spirit Dance creates and produces contemporary dance that is rooted in Indigenous worldviews and honours the communities and artists we work with. We share stories through Indigenous perspectives and practices and create opportunities for others to do the same.

Links: www.ravenspiritdance.com, Facebook: @ravenspiritdance, Instagram: @ravenspiritdance, X: @rsdancecompany 

Email: info@ravenspiritdance.com

Eurydice Fragments

Debi Wong (she / her)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Produced by re:Naissance Opera co-created by Luke Hathaway, Teiya Kasahara, Debi Wong & Benton Roark. Step into The Styx, a cyberpunk queerbar where reality and virtual identities merge. Through motion capture, virtual avatars, and live performance, this groundbreaking immersive experience reimagines the Orphean myth for our digital age. Follow O’s journey through UNDERWORLD – a social media platform where users explore their true selves through mythological avatars – as they challenge the binary boundaries of existence. Blending opera, and beatboxing, extended reality, and interactive technology, Eurydice Fragments invites audiences into a liminal space where ancient stories collide with modern questions of identity, transformation, and the fluid nature of being.

re:Naissance crafts boundary-defying immersive experiences that merge storytelling, technology, and live performance. Based in Vancouver on unceded Coast Salish territories, we lift up equity-deserving artists through award-winning productions like The Apocrypha Chronicles, Live from the Underworld and Eurydice Fragments. Our innovative blend of interactive audio, motion capture, virtual avatars, and mythological narratives creates transformative spaces where art reimagines possibilities and inspires awe. 

Links: www.reopera.com, Instagram: @opera_reborn | Facebook: @renaissanceopera | TikTok: @renaissanceopera

Email: debi@reopera.com 

You Could Be My Safe Space

JD Derbyshire (they/ them) & Dave Deveau (he/they)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

You Could Be My Safe Space is a meta-theatrical deep dive into how Queer art is made and how we as a society can elevate Trans voices while not speaking for them. 

In a time when governments are impinging on Trans rights and TERF ideologies are being used to draft educational policy across Canada, even Queer and Feminist communities are failing to provide necessary allyship. 

Created by award-winning playwrights, JD Derbyshire & Dave Deveau, the show delves into the polarized world of trans-exclusionary radical feminism, and the creative process behind writing it. Part Winners and Losers, part queer manifesto.

About Zee Zee Theatre: Based on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territories of the Coast Salish people, we are devoted to telling & celebrating stories that amplify voices from the margins, with a focus on 2SLGBTQI+ communities. For 16 years we have produced, commissioned, developed, and presented works to inspire, amplify, elevate, & celebrate Queer, Trans, & intersectional communities, families, youth and elders. 

Links: zeezeetheatre.ca, Instagram: @ZeeZeeTheatre

Email: bronwyn@zeezeetheatre.ca

Hannah Slimmon (she/her)

Here & Now nurtures new relationships between artists making performance in England and international partners. 

Each year we showcase a cohort of artists at the Edinburgh Festivals (Scotland, UK), connecting them with a curated delegation of international presenters and invest in the resulting relationships by co-producing international tours.  

Here & Now builds on the legacy of Horizon which ran 2021 – 2023. To date, we have connected 48 artists with 113 delegates resulting in over 40 international presentations, residencies and new commissions.

Here & Now is funded by Arts Council England and delivered by:

• Battersea Arts Centre – a multi-disciplinary arts venue presenting international work alongside community events and creative youth academies. 
• FABRIC – a development organisation working with artists to create extraordinary dance to inspire people and places.
• Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT)- North East England’s creative home for contemporary performance.

Links: www.hereandnowshowcase.uk/ , Instagram: @hn_showcase, X: @HN_showcase, Facebook: @hereandnowshowcase

Email: hannah.slimmon@fabric.dance

First Trimester 

Krishna Istha (they/them)
London, UK

In this one-of-a-kind durational experience, ‘First Trimester’ invites you to witness intimate live interviews between performance artist Krishna Istha and 100s of participants, in a quest to find them and their partner a sperm donor, or at least discover the qualities that bring them closer to their perfect match. 

The show explores human connection and parenthood, challenging expectations and redefining what it means to create a family as a transgender person.

First Trimester is part one in a trilogy. Krishna is currently making Second Trimester, a show by Krishna and their mother, to be performed when Krishna is finally pregnant.

Krishna Istha is a London-based performance artist, screenwriter, comedian and theatre maker. They create socially conscious form-pushing works about taboo or underrepresented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics.

Most recently, they wrote on Netflix’s Sex Education, and was one of the comedians featured on the Netflix Special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda. Currently, Krishna is writing their first feature film for BBC Films.

Links: www.krishnaistha.com, Instagram: @krishnaistha

Email: producerruby@gmail.com

Distorted Constellations

Nwando Ebizie (she/her)
London, UK

Distorted Constellations is an immersive multi-sensory environment inspired by the artist’s mythic interpretation of the neurological syndrome, Visual Snow, which causes her to see an augmented reality of Seurat-like pointillist dots, auras and glowing lines. 

This Afrofabulist alternate reality is a playground for creative exploration, which draws on immersive technologies and embodied ritual practice. A landscape for transformative encounters. It calls into question how much we can trust our senses through an exploration of atypical perception.

About Nwando Ebizie: An unclassifiable polymath, British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist Nwando creates Afrofuturist speculative fictions and alternate realities at the intersection of live art, experimental music and multi-sensory installations. 

She proposes new myths, rituals and provocations for perceptual change, radical care and transformation of the self and community, drawing from science fiction, Black Atlantic ritual cultures, biophilia, neuroscience, her own neurodivergency and Nigerian heritage.

Links: nwandoebizie.com, Instagram: @nwando_ebizie, X: @nwando

Email: nwando@nwandoebizie.com

TESTO

Wet Mess (they/them)
London, UK

In TESTO by Wet Mess, Wet Messifies transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag. Expect dykey desires, moustache meals and choreography of guttural sexuality pinching at the dull flesh of life where the magical is in the mundane and made up shit becomes real.

WET MESS is a drag and dance artist who works across cabaret, film, performance & theatre. In 2023, they performed at the Royal Court as part of Sound of the Underground by Travis Alabanza and Debbie Hannan, and in Galatea by Emma Frankland as part of Brighton Fringe. They won the prestigious Not Another Drag competition at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 2021 and have performed at queer venues in the UK and internationally.

Links: wetmesswetmess.com, Instagram: @wet_mess

Email: nancy@metalwater.co